It is the pleasant duty of all Masters to attend as many of the Company's Committees as time will allow. Today it was the Finance and Communications Committees which have generally taken place on the same day over the past few years. The Finance Committee, chaired by the Upper Warden, Simon Martin, covered a wide range of items including the Company investment performance, cash flow projections, the progress of quarterage collection for the year, financial policies and procedures and, most importantly, the annual accounts for the Past Master's year. This is the first time that the annual accounts have been completed so quickly after the year end and much thanks for this must go to the chairman of the committee, Simon Martin, for doggedly pursuing this goal. It will be very satisfying to present the most current year's accounts to Common Hall in February of next year.

The Communications Committee followed after lunch, chaired by the Renter Warden Professor John Schofield. We covered a number of issues in connection with membership of the Company and the various events that will be taking place over the next 12 months, including identifying event reporters, to whom I am most grateful. There was also a debate about the website and the continued expansion of use of IT communications methods and how we can make better use of these. It was also agreed that it might be appreciated by Company members if the Master were to communicate a little more frequently with Liverymen, say two or three times per annum and I agreed to try this out for my year.

I was very pleased to attend both meetings which I found interesting and thought provoking.